Dear neighbors and subscribers to our associationbusters.com website and blog. Continuing our education and advocacy efforts, on behalf of homeowners fighting Rogue HOAs’ , we will be covering the fundamental legal obligation of an HOA, for the Annual creation and distribution of a Financial Statement. We will present a simple example of the totally un-complicated process of Check Book Balancing. Here we go!
Royden is a NC GS 55A Non-Profit Corporation. It’s sole function and purpose for existence is to maintain the common areas. To do this they only need a Bank Checking Account…That’s it’
Now, to maintain the common areas, they need to set up 7-10 accounts. Electric, Water, Lawn Maintenance, Sprinkler Repair, Shrubs/plantings…etc….Once set up, the treasurer only has to pay 10-12 bills per month….He, in the present case at Royden is a lawyer named Ben Pleune. His President is Jon Nance.
As our recent Newsletter suggested, these guys should be relieved of their duty. They not only cannot maintain a Bank Checking account, nor will they fOR the past 10 years report, , they display their total ignorance of simple Bank account reconciliation on the HOA Website, for the community and prospective home buyers to observe.

Back to the checkbook….
Royden collects an Annual Assessment from some 138 members. Which Mr. Pleune deposits to the Royden Checking Account. So, now we have deposits(Income) and maintenance related checks (Expenses).
Again, many of you still have checking accounts with online payment abilities as well.
As the year, which begins on June 1 and ends on May 31, comes to a close, the treasurer has to generate a Financial Statement. A NC Law and in the Covenants.
Royden has a cash basis system and reports an Income Statement and a Cash Flow Statement.

For the Income Statement, Pleune need only go to the Royden Check book for all of his data.
He totals up all the Receipts….and Records this as INCOME
He totals up all the checks…and Records this as EXPENSE
He now has an Income Statement or Profit/Loss Statement. Income minus Expenses=Profit or (Loss). That;s it. Three Hours work at best. I’ve done it as President and Treasurer of the RHA.

Now, except for any Royden members who do not have a grade school level education, this should be a piece of cake!!!!!
OOOOPs…Not for lawyer Pleune and President Nance!!!!!! We are reminded of the missing checks fiasco…but that;s for later.

Now for the, apparently hard part…the Cash Flow Statement! Which has been deliberately missing for the past 7 years??? Check the Website!

Here we need the check book and Bank checking account opening balance as of June 1. The Royden Fiscal Year begins June 1 and ends May 31. A fact unknown to Pleune.
In the Cash flow statement this is called the…Beginning Cash Balance (Checking).
A separate Bank Account exists and is a Certified Deposit Account or CD. The CD does not see activity during the year and may draw nominal interest of $10 or less. which is added to Income.
The opening June 1 CD Balance is the added to the June 1 Checking Cash Balance and becomes the Beginning Cash and Cash Equivalents Balance as of June 1…(Also called Fiscal Reserves).
Now the data accumulation for the Cash Flow Statement is complete, Again, maybe three hours time needed.
THE CASH FLOW STATEMENT INCLUDES A MERE THREE LINES OF DATA
Beginning Cash and Cash Equivalents-
Plus or Minus Profit/(Loss) equals
ENDING CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS BALANCE
Now mind you, the Beginning and Ending Cash and Cash Equivalents Balance must be confirmed against the Checking book and CD accounts actual figures.
Otherwise the Books don’t Balance and are not reconciled to represent a TRUE Financial Report……
Now Hear this clearly….WITHOUT A CASH FLOW STATEMENT RECONCILED TO THE RHA ACTUAL ACCOUNT BALANCES, THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ARE WORTHLESS.
Now can you see the central issue facing Royden Members. Our Board of Directors have refused to give to their members, an accounting of the nearly $300,000.00 in Annual Assessments they have collected over the past seven years. They have posted embarrassing and even fraudulent data on the website and even with repeated demands for accountability, they remain silent,
THUS THE CHARACTERIZATION THAT ROYDEN IS CORRUPT, WILL BE THEIR LEGACY, TO THE DETRIMENT OF ALL MEMBERS.
Here’s a reason why they are paralyzed to inaction!!!

The Last Financial Report Issued by Royden was for May 31, 2009…It Showed:
Income-$44,718.00
Expenses-$33,472
Profit-$11,246…As the Income Statement

..Note, Cash and Cah Equivalents is also called Fiscal Reserves
. Article IV-Covenant for Maintenance Assessments requires this figure to be “Equal to” 10% of the Total Annual Assessment or $2848..
..Yes…The Board had Exceeded the !0% Contingency reserve by over $22,000 and did not give a credit of over $160.00 to each members account in the 2010 Annual Assessment.

For over seven years NO FINANCIAL REPORTS HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS!!!….Here’s Why!
The Rogue Board knew that the fiscal reserves were above the required “equal to” figure. In over 28 years of existence, the fiscal reserve was never required to be used. Boards after the disastrous “easement lawsuit ” and the $300,000.00 of wasted community funds, were worried about legal action from RInaldi and others. They wanted to keep the excess reserve to be used against members lawsuits.
In 2012, after a books and records review by Rinaldi, Rinaldi found that Banking records showed a Cash shortfall of around $4,000.00 in one year, 2012.

Again, NO CASH FLOW REPORTING with the all important closing balances reconciliation, was ever available to members, for over seven years. Masking of the Fiscal Reseve credit and the occurrence of an incident or incidents of MIS-APPROPRIATION of funds by a board member or members, were now being COVERED UP by the Royden Board.

After three years of Rinaldi vs. Royden lawsuits, from 2013-2016, the Board decided to finally give a Fiscal Reserve Credit…However, still not following Article IV-Covenant for Maintenance Assessments.
They improperly reported the Opening Balance as of June 1, and did not include a Cash Flow as outlined above. Again, so as to Cover-Up past and ongoing incidents of FRAUD….Yes FRAUD, otherwise what would be so difficult in merely performing the simple Check Book Balancing calculations discussed above.
Again, requiring only a High School Education…Much less, a Law Degree!.

As our last newsletter pointed out, the May 31, 2015 and May 31, 2016 alleged FINANCIAL REPORTS are a complete ruse…..Without a Cash Flow Statement.
Pleune ignorantly presents an incident of missing checks to confirm his incompetence!!!!

The existence of two missing checks indicates that the Check closing process for generating an Income Statement was fatally flawed. The checks were either never included in the Expenses and were never accounted for in the closing balances for the checking account. This makes all statistics reported in 2015 and 2016 INCORRECT!!!
And, without actual financial statements to counter the claim, nearly $20,000.00 missing over the seven years of NON_REPORTED CASH FLOW STATEMENTS!!!!!

Jon Nance, as vice President, in a court affidavit, actually signed an affidavit for the court, that said that he was fully aware of all Royden Covenants and that Financial Statements had been provided to members in every year, One only has to look at the Royden Website to verify that this affidavit was a bold faced LIE….And he was made President.
The Royden then approved the filing of a claim against Rinaldi, for Sanctions, to stop his lawsuit involving violations to Article IV-Covenant for Maintenance Assessments. The RHA never defended the assessment process and won a $6,300 judgment, paid in Sept. 2016.

Pleune, Nance, Owensby and Grissette…a toxic collaboration for the Royden Rogue HOA, poster child image soon to be exposed in local and possible national media coverage.

The only member comment received, on our work to date through the newsletter, is that some members object to the Community being referred to as “an apathetic, uninformed, lemming community”.
Some even suggesting we “wont be invited over for dinner parties”. Devastating news.
Oh Well,,,we still will have a chance to host one of the “catered parties” or even attend one, that Ms. Gressette will arrange.
We certainly. after nearly 30 years of residence in Royden, must need Royden to provide a SOCIAL outlet for our family…..Even if the covenants don’t provide for this amenity.

Sarcasm aside, members need to be aware that the ROYDEN WEBSITE is your reliable proof of the Royden Boards’ incompetent, fraudulent and illegal behavior. A continuing embarrassment.
A simple Check Book Balancing accounting system has not been employed, in the conduct of the Roydens singular duty, of selecting contractors and paying expenses in the maintenance of the common areas.

Here’s more as to WHY….. because of the potential, pending fraudulent constructive fraud-breach of fiduciary duty claim against the Directors’ and Officers Liability Insurance Carrier, the seven person board is faced with perpetuating a lie, or………IF TRUTH PREVAILS….. coming clean and enforce Article IV-Covenant for Maintenance Assessments in all future Annual Assessments.
A settlement offer presented several times in the past. and still very much on the table…The RHA must again consider….
With the education our newsletter provides, we can only hope that the lemming community will rise up in arms, against the continued risk to the Communities reputation. and the CORRUPTION ENDS.
For our part. we will continue the SPOTLIGHT on Royden and our education and advocacy for all homeowners faced with similar abuses by their HOA.

“we may have to accept that our government lies to us, but we’ll be damned if we allow our neighbors to lie to us”

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ORA was founded in 1991 by Richard A. Rinaldi and is an acronym for Operations Research Associates with a logo depicting an abstract time concept relating to business cycles and time management. The practice focus areas are executive mentoring, in-house training and business strategy formulation with cash optimization the driving objective.